Our Trip to America 2016

As I sit here in my apartment, snow coming down outside and freezing temperatures causing us to bundle up today I realize it has been a long time since I have updated my blog!  We had a trip home in September and stayed until the middle of October in the U.S.A.  After returning to China it took a few weeks to adjust back to everything and we had Halloween and both kids birthdays. It has been a very busy couple of months!  I will do a couple of blog posts to update you all on the life of the Hudsons.  

Our trip home.....we flew into Phoenix but with just enough time to grab our van from Brian's parent's house and drive to Vegas and see my parents for the first week of our trip.  As you can expect both sets of grandparents were thrilled to see the kids as it had been 11 months since they had seen them in person!  The kids had grown a lot and Grace had started walking and talking.  

In Vegas we had a lot of fun, the kids got to ride ponies at the Bonnie Spring Ranch, they played at the park with Dinosaurs and of course Blake got to ride a train while we visited Springs Preserve!  The highlights for them were playing with Zach the dog, swimming in the pool everyday because Papa heated it for them, and sharing chips with Nana.   Feeding the ducks at the park with bread was a real treat for them too!  It was a lot of fun to be there, we had some favorite foods like latkes, and corned beef made by dad and had lots of time to play!  Brian and I were even able to stay a night on the strip and see a show and have a nice dinner out to celebrate our anniversary!  We saw Blue Man Group and ate dinner at Gordon Ramsey Steak in Paris.  Brian and I took the kids to the Children's museum there which was really cool and very hands on if you are ever in the area with your kiddos!  We couldn't have asked for better weather and the kids really liked being able to go outside everyday!

Papa and Nana

Springs Preserve Museum

Park Fun

Dinosaur Park Fun

Children's Museum

Bonnie Springs Ranch

Our Night out!

                        








 After Vegas we drove to San Diego, met Brian's parents there and spent three days in the city!  We took the kids to Legoland which was a first for all of us and to Sea World.  They had a good time at both places, Legoland was more fun for Blake because Grace was still too small for a lot of the rides but she had a good time anyway.  Sea World always seems smaller than I remember it as a kids, and we went just after the summer ended so we didn't get to see the night shows and a lot of the stands were closed but for two little ones it was still enough shows and they even had Elmo rides which Grace loved!  We spent a morning at the beach so Blake could build a sand castle and collect sea weed which he got a big thrill out of.....not sure dad was so thrilled to be collecting sea week :)  Lots of good eats and if you know Brian at all you know we tried some local breweries too!  We found a great ice cream sandwich shop, if you know me i am always on the lookout for good ice cream!  Mission Beach is where we stayed so a nice beach and lots of restaurants were in walking distance of the house we rented.

Friends and Family to see!

Next stop was Phoenix, home sweet home, or at least it will be again soon.  In case you haven't heard, we bought a house!  We are planning to move back to Phoenix in May/June of 2017 and are building a house on the Chandler/Gilbert (Lindsay Rd. and Queen Creek Rd) border.  We are excited to be coming back to friends and family of course.  This experience had made our lives richer and broadened our horizons of the world, we have enjoyed it a lot but our time here is coming to a close.

Lego Discovery Center

At the Zoo!

More Zoo fun!

Camp Fire in the backyard!

In Phoenix we might have missed seeing you as we didn't have much time, and really wanted to focus on the kids seeing their grandparents both in Vegas and Phoenix so if we missed you we will see you next summer!  We took the kids to the Phoenix Zoo which is always a hit they love animals!  We were able to check out the new house neighborhood and eat in a few places in downtown Chandler and downtown Gilbert to check the area out a bit!  We headed to Surprise to visit my grandma (Granny-great) and catch up a little with her. She loves getting to see all her great-grandchildren and three of them were together to play that day :) We had a dinner at my favorite....Don & Charley's and put Grace in the baseball chair!  Had some fun with friends and lots of food and drinks!

Don & Charley's and fun

My Grandma's house!

Last stop was Tucson, Brian went to a UofA game and the kids spent the night with grandma and grandpa!  We stayed one night in Tucson which meant I could see some old friends!  The next day we went to a nice little wine festival for the day with amazing weather!!!
















What was a three week trip flew by and we were happy to see everyone we could (missed Jayme as he was in Australia on an adventure).  Looking forward to seeing you all next summer....unless you want to come visit before we move back!